Lancaster – In the month when college basketball rules, Ohio University Lancaster’s Hannah V. McCauley Library is celebrating the game by showcasing its history in southern Ohio and bringing Olympic Gold medalist Bill Hosket to campus. The event will be held March 27 at 6 p.m. in the Raymond S. Wilkes Gallery for the Visual Arts and is free and open to the public.

Hosket is a native of Dayton, Ohio, where he played for Dayton Belmont High School and won the state tournament in 1964. Hosket followed in his late father’s footsteps and went on to Ohio State where he was named All Big Ten, All American and captained the Big Ten Championship team in 1968, finishing third in the Final Four. Hosket was part of the 1968 Olympic Basketball team that went undefeated in Mexico City winning the gold medal. He was drafted in the first round by the New York Knicks and was a member of the 1970 NBA World Championship Team. After professional basketball, Hosket began a career in the paper industry but never totally left the sport. He served three terms on the US Olympic Basketball Committee, co-founded and conducted Buckeye Basketball Camp for over 25 years, and also provided analysis on ESPN Regional Television as part of the Big Ten package.

Hosket will be on campus for a screening of a documentary called “The 8th Wonder: The Waterloo Wonders.” The documentary was produced by Ohio University Lancaster | Pickerington Communications and Marketing Manager Cheri Russo in 2008 when she worked at WOUB in Athens. The documentary is about a depression-era high school basketball team from southern Ohio that tied rags together to make a basketball, hung bushel baskets in a barn, and learned to play basketball -- with a ball that wouldn't bounce. The boys learned how to pass the ball so proficiently that no opponent could stop them. Individually, they were good basketball players, but together they made history, becoming the Class B state champions in 1934 and 1935. The story has a special place in Bill Hosket’s heart: his father was part of the Waterloo Wonders and passed away when he was very young.

All of the members of the championship Waterloo Wonders team are now deceased. In the documentary, descendants and Waterloo residents tell the story of the Waterloo Wonders and share memorabilia from the team.

Hosket and Russo will talk about the documentary and answer questions after the screening. Those in attendance will have the opportunity to win an Ohio University basketball signed by Hosket by answering a trivia question about the documentary. A trivia contest about the Waterloo Wonders will also be going on in the library from March 24 to March 31. Prizes will be awarded to those with the most correct answers to the trivia questions and a random drawing will be held to win an iPod shuffle. A copy of the documentary is available for checkout in the library.

To celebrate basketball during the month of March, the library will also have updated brackets for the NCAA tournament on the television monitor on the lower level and will offer those who are checking out materials a chance to shoot a free throw at the circulation desk to win prizes.